Situational ethics has a wide following.
Besides, do you think that every time someone cheated you(or tried to cheat you), you knew it?
Losers are everywhere, period, would be a far better way to put it. Although, calling someone a loser usually means that someone will be saying the same thing about you. Not me, I wouldn’t say that to you. It’s a vicious cycle.
I am quietly going to admit that perhaps there are a higher proportion of said people in the English teaching world. Perhaps. But, you didn’t hear it from me.
I’ve overreacted a few times myself but can’t imagine being such an ass as that.
Once after a long day I was at a bar with friends and noticed a guy staring at me. I stared back, and when he kept staring I started scratching myself like a monkey and making noises. He said something to his girlfriend and kept staring. Only then did I notice I was sitting right under a TV broadcasting a soccer match. 
Other times I thought I was being stared at and licked my lips, blew kisses, etc. and then realized I wasn’t being stared at after all. However, I’ve had many more occasions when people stare; when I stare back they look irritated and turn away. What is it with the stares? I’ve been stared at in several other countries, but never like here. What is it that makes a Taiwanese stare so annoying?
[quote=“austin”]The ubiquitous dishonesty in Asian culture makes a foreigner overcautious. A guy fresh off the plane might be cheated many times in a row and become punchy.
If any readers haven’t been to Mainland know you’ll be cheated more often than in Taiwan … one must mentally prepare for the discomfort and remain calm.
Your post is a good warning.[/quote]
Define cheated
In Mainland China I often paid more than locals, but I wasn’t necessarily cheated.
I was never once short changed, and I never once got something less than I asked for.
In fact I had them go out of their way to get change to me. I had change passed from one end of the crowded bus to the other. A bus conducter gave me back extra because she didn’t have smaller change (she was delighted when I gave her back the difference). My local “hole in the wall” restaurant often wanted to give me freebies (and I really don’t think he could afford it - I ended up going less and less becuase I felt bad.
The taxi driver who picked me up from the airport turned on the meter and would not take the change as a tip.
I had a bus driver take me out of his way.
If an item costs locals $100 and they can sell it to a foreigner for $200 (after legitimate bargaining) knowing that back home the foreigner would pay $1,000 the Chinese just consider this good business, not cheating.
I’ve had bad experiences and good ones.
Don’t make the mistake of confusing culture for morals.
And for (Mick/Paddy/O’Reily) to swear and curse is bad enough, but to spit on the ground, rub the note in it and then expect the taxi driver to get out and pick it up. Tell me who is the guy with less morals? 10 points to the taxi driver.
Imagine the axi driver understands as much English as (Mick/Paddy/O’Reily/McNally) and sees this ranting foreigner screaming “$100! $100 ??? $100 $100 ???” spits on the ground and rubs the note in it.Poor guy probably didn’t know what the heck was going on.
If he expected $100 he could have just given the $100 to the taxi driver and waved him off.
What a goof!
(So how did (Mick/Paddy/O’Reily/McNally/O’Rourke) know that the meter was on and it was actually only $80 if his Chinese was so poor?)